Cornering: the verb

TomaS

I have been thinking about something like this for the contest.
But I am not entirely happy with the result so far.
I can shoot again tomorrow and would welcome any suggestions for improvement.

System

Nice idea.

The first thing that I see here is a horrible background. It's nothing special and quite distracting. For this shot to work you really need the right background. I'd look for something to offset the frame and shoot with a tighter DOF to blur the background as much as possible. I think a busy street corner in an urban setting with car brake lights, stop lights and the associated chaos would work as would a very rural or wooded setting.

I think the extreme front wheel angle reeks of a low speed turn in a parking lot rather than a true corner on a road bike. For safety reasons I'm not sure taking a sweeper at 40 mph while trying to fire the camera is a great idea but it sure would make for a more realistic pic with motion blur.

I also thing that a sunny day (not that you have control) might add to the pic as is the dark frame just isn't "popping" enough to me.

I shot my trek for the "motion" challenge a few months ago.

TomaS

I cannot disagree with your comments. Up to this point it has been more of an exercise in technique (camera mount, composition, settings, etc) with little consideration for location. The street I live on was easy ...

I am not willing to risk my neck or my camera in city traffic or a high speed descent, but will see what I can do tomorrow to give it more realism and pop. Today I used the self-timer, but I think I will try to rig up the remote release tomorrow.

Thanks for the feedback.

System

Nice work! That's 100 x better than the original. The background now works for your theme.

TomaS

truth wrote:

Nice work! That's 100 x better than the original. The background now works for your theme.

Thanks truth. I still did not get what I originally imagined, but was running out of time to find the right location.

I used the cable release which worked much better than timer. I do like the way you can see my left hand reaching for the brake in this one. I normally do NOT use the front brake in a corner, but the camera clamp locked down my rear cable against the top tube, making it non-functional.

System

I would have fgured you'd use the seat tube, but that would be a very odd angle now that I think about it. heh. I think you got a much better shot. Hopefully I was helpful.

With the cable release did you just lock it down and let it keep firing off frames as you approached the corner?

Front brakes have their place in corners, jsut not usually without the back brake applied first. I'm an MTB'r turned Roadie so I ride like I'm always on dirt.

TomaS

truth wrote:

I would have fgured you'd use the seat tube, but that would be a very odd angle now that I think about it. heh. I think you got a much better shot. Hopefully I was helpful.

With the cable release did you just lock it down and let it keep firing off frames as you approached the corner?

Front brakes have their place in corners, jsut not usually without the back brake applied first. I'm an MTB'r turned Roadie so I ride like I'm always on dirt.

Tried the seat tube but did not like composition / angle and could not pedal with the leg on the camera side.
Used a Bogen super clamp under top tube.
I set the camera to manual focus, shutter priority, contiunous (low speed, 2fps) and pressed the release with right index finger. My right hand needed something to do since it could not apply brake.